April 18, 1915: Aerial Warfare Is About to Make a Quantum Leap

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April 18, 1915: Aerial Warfare Is About to Make a Quantum Leap

1915: Roland Garros is forced down behind German lines and taken prisoner. His plane is recovered intact by the Germans, which results in a technological leap forward for aerial warfare.

Garros, a one-time aspiring concert pianist who gained fame as an aviator prior to World War I when he flew nonstop across the Mediterranean Sea, is considered to be the first true fighter pilot in history.

He joined the French army at the outbreak of hostilities and was soon engaged in aerial combat, then in its infancy. Finding it too difficult to fly and shoot at the same time, Garros mounted a forward-firing machine gun to his plane and fitted metal deflector plates to the propeller to protect it from the bullets.

This enhancement allowed Garros to attack head on and he shot down five German planes within two weeks, becoming the war’s first "ace."

After Garros was shot down (ironically by ground fire), his plane was turned over to Anthony Fokker, the Dutch aircraft engineer then building planes for Germany. Improving on Garros’ idea, Fokker’s team designed a system known as the interrupter gear that synchronized the action, allowing bullets to pass between the propeller blades without striking them.

This became standard on German aircraft and soon made its way back across No Man’s Land to Allied machines. And the mayhem was on.

As for Garros, he managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp in early 1918. Making his way back to French lines, he returned to combat. He was shot down a second time in October 1918, only a month before the war ended. His luck had run out, though: This time, Garros was killed.

If his name sounds familiar, you may have heard it in a different context: The tennis center in Paris where the annual French Open is played is named for Roland Garros.